Unless your bucket list includes testing the limits of your eardrums before they tear beyond repair, after exposure to unbearable decibels, it would be prudent to avoid the new jukebox musical “Rolling Thunder” which is currently playing at New World Stages – Stage 3. With book by Bruce Hallett and directed by Kenneth Ferrone, “Rolling Thunder” describes itself as “raw and potent storytelling inspired by Vietnam veterans and their families.” Further, the production’s hype promises that “The draft, combat, civil rights movement, and homecoming are evocatively reawakened in this intimate and epic work. At heart, it’s a deeply moving love story of courage, longing, loss, and hope.”

Nothing could be further from what one experiences on Stage 3 at New World Stages. Even the legendary songs of the period of the 1960s and 1970s cannot raise the new musical above mediocrity. Chong Lim’s and Sonny Paladino’s arrangements of classics like Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” and the Appalachian folk song “House of the Rising Sun” made famous by The Animals do not do justice to the original music. Sadly, the producers fail to give credit to the lyricists and musicians who crafted these memorable songs. These omissions are unforgivable and unprofessional.

Conducted by Sonny Paladino, the band plays with excessive decibels. The narratives about the Vietnam era are superficial at best, and disrespectful to the legacy of that long conflict. The diverse cast delivers their monologues without any sense of believability or authenticity. The vocals are equally without emotion or authenticity.

Wilson Chin’s scenic design focuses on the members of the band, elevating them above the small playing area where director Kenneth Ferrone seems unable or unwilling to stage the musical to elevate the stories to a meaningful level. The entire effort is overwrought and overlong at over two hours.

“Rolling Thunder” fails to honor both the musical genre and the historical significance of what it was trying to portray to the audience. The musical was disrespectful of the Vietnam era and those who lost their lives on both sides of the conflict.